90 Unusually Awesome Urban Furniture Designs

90 Unusually Awesome Urban Furniture Designs

In a world where most people move into spaces that were designed by and for someone else furniture becomes a way in which we can customize places to suit our needs, lifestyle and aesthetic attitudes. If you want something comfortable and conventional you might want to look elsewhere. If you are looking for bold, creative and possibly somewhat crazy furniture designs you are definitely in the right place. From dozens of designers here are ninety urban furniture designs that are bound to turn heads at any dinner party.

Absurdly Creative Bedroom Furniture: If you think about it you will spend about one third of your life in the bedroom - that’s a lot of time for a little space so you might want to make the most of it. From mouse-trap beds to self-defense night stands here are eight pieces of furniture no bizarre bedroom should be without. ost of us will spend approximately one-third of our lives in the bedroom.

Hilariously Strange Living Room Furniture: The living room is the heart and soul of most houses, the place where people gather to chat, chill and have fun. Whether you want to fill that space with sheep-head sofas or geeky Nintendo game controller-styled tables, decorating your living room can make all kinds of statements about your priorities, who you are and what you like to do in your free time.

Geekishly Multifunctional Office Furniture: What better place to make a statement than in what might otherwise be a boring, cramped and ugly cubicle? Sure, you are supposed to be doing work but the chances are you spend a decent amount of time reading about things like awesome office furniture online instead. From desks that exercise you to the ultimate gamer console table, here are eight particularly awesome office furniture designs.

Downright Bizarre Dining Room Furniture: Did you know that the idea of a dedicated dining room is only a few centuries old? As a result a lot less time has gone into the development of dining room furniture until relatively recently. However, new designers are making up for lost time with all kinds of strange dining room furniture designs including strange space-saving strategies using transforming, collapsing and expanding furniture.

Unusually Inventive Kitchen Furniture: The kitchen is in many a place where innovation doesn’t come to mind for most people. What do you really need besides the basics anyway? A few audacious out-of-the box thinkers have come up with some truly inventive designs that question our basic conceptions about the kitchen by creating modular, multi-purpose and adjustable designs that fit needs you didn’t know you had.

Particularly Awesome Kids Furniture: There is no doubt that having kids changes the game furniture-wise - but it doesn’t have to mean the end of collecting absolutely awesome transforming, bizarre and otherwise engaging furniture. Quite the opposite in fact. From space shuttle beds to skyscraper dressers here are some pieces of kid furniture you will almost certainly wish they had around when you were a child.

Beautifully Naturalistic Garden Furniture: When you run of of strange furniture to pack your house with what comes next? The garden is the next frontier, a place where you can commune with nature but also a place without necessarily a lot of space. These creative garden furniture designs provide unique ways to a naturalistic way of blurring the boundary between art, design and the environment.

Crazily Unconventional Outdoor Furniture: Of course not everyone wants to take the traditional route of blending their furniture in with nature - and this crazy outdoor furniture is the solution for those types. Some of this furniture transforms to create a variety of places within a small space while other pieces make incredibly strong (and relatively strange) statements with faux elegance that would make the French cry.

BEDROOM and FURNITURE

(images via: Wes Clark and Kitchen Challenged)

Most of us will spend approximately one-third of our lives in the bedroom. Some say the bedroom is the most important room in the house since it’s where we go to recharge after a long day. These funky and unexpected bedroom furnitures and specific furniture designs could add some visual interest to your room, help you sleep better, or just maximize your available space.

(image via: BonBon)

This sofa bed/bunk bed combo seems like it was dreamed up by a designer who grew up watching the Transformers cartoon. The seemingly innocuous sofa goes from mild-mannered sitting place to totally awesome bunk bed in mere seconds. More than meets the eye, indeed. For studio apartments or small guest rooms, this is an essential piece of furniture.

(image via: JamesMcAdam)

Designed with security-conscious Londoners in mind, the Self-Defense Table provides a way to defend yourself and fight back if you are ever confronted in your home. The tabletop becomes a shield, and the support becomes a bludgeoning object. If you have to have a self-defense weapon in your home, this table seems like a safe and functional choice.

(image via: Tranism)

This fascinating bed is perfect for everyone who’s ever wondered why they just can’t hold on to a partner. Simply place some rose petals and gourmet chocolates on top, wait for your target to take the bait, and pull the rope. Don’t forget to drill some air holes in the box. Unfortunately, this design isn’t available in stores. It was part of alternative design event Come Up To My Room held at Gladstone Hotel in Toronto.

(image via: EasyChair WorkStations)

This laptop desk could be your dream come true or your worst nightmare. Of course, it makes using your laptop in bed much easier and less stressful on your back. But once you have a comfortable way to surf the web, hold your drink, and lie down all at once, you may find yourself spending a lot more time in bed.

(image via: Techeblog)

For those truly tiny bedrooms that have no extra space at all, this space-saving fetal position bed has a minuscule footprint. Don’t count on having any overnight companions, though. You’ll have a hard enough time staying in it yourself. As of now, this concept is not being produced for sale. You have to imagine that there are at least a few people out there who would be brave enough to try it.

(image via: FlyingBeds)

In smaller homes where space is at a premium, cleverly designed morphing furniture is the best way to maximize the space you have. This amazing desk/bed is a perfect example of how to maintain the functionality of two pieces of furniture while only needing room for one piece. You don’t even have to move your gear from the desk surface before folding the bed out.

(image via: DoobyBrain)

People with sleep problems often try everything they can think of to get a good night’s sleep. Sleeping pills, warm milk, meditation, strenuous exercise…but what if the problem is your bed? The Lomme Bed is designed to provide you with the most naturally peaceful sleep of your life. It integrates soft lighting and soothing sounds with a comfy sleeping surface. Even the egg-like shape of the bed invokes a sense of security and comfort.

(image via: Dvice)

Do you need a place to store your infinitely self-similar pieces of clothing? The Fractal 23 can solve that problem, delight your inner math nerd, and look cool all at the same time. The 23 drawers in the Fractal 23 are arranged in such a clever way that it’s possible to store a large amount of stuff in them, yet when the drawers are closed you’re left with a smallish cube. Don’t try putting these fractals inside the Klein bottle house, though. We suspect that would create some sort of mathematical paradox that would eventually destroy the world. Continue on to see even stranger urban furniture designs.

LIVING ROOM and FURNITURES

The living room is often the center of a house. It’s the place where families and visitors gather to talk, relax, and be entertained. The furnitures and decor in the living room can set the tone for everything that happens in that room. It follows that living room furniture is a main focus when a house is being decorated. If you’re anything but traditional, these unique and clever living room furniture designs may be right up your alley.

Love fancy cars but can’t afford to keep a whole one around? How about just the back end? This car couch (top) is nothing like the tacky versions from the 80s. This is smooth, luxurious Aston Martin DB6 - just like James Bond would sit on if he ever sat around watching movies and eating potato chips.

The Wave Chaise (bottom) is a new concept in teen seating/entertainment. This one piece of furniture contains everything your teenager (or you, if you’re game) might need entertainment-wise. Watch TV and movies, play video games, do homework, listen to CDs, read a book, talk on the phone or take a nap in this futuristic-looking pod.

This odd looking piece of furniture (top) may have been inspired by a toothbrush. The long noodly arms look comforting, but we wonder how difficult it would be to play video games while constantly batting the soft arms out of your face. This piece is a concept designed by a student at Bucks New University.

You may have heard of the world-famous motorized sofa. If you’re concerned about the environment and want to work out your calves without ever leaving your couch, the Couchbike gives you the best of all worlds. Although it’s not commercially available, its creators took it on a riding tour around the maritimes in Eastern Canada.

The Meltdown Chair (top left) is a fine example of art doubling as a useful object. The artist, Tom Price, heats a chair form and presses it into a pile of clear PVC hose to melt and char the plastic. When it’s done, it looks like a chair with springy supports. These may not be for everyone, but they do look oddly comfortable.

When you feel like cuddling but you need to get some reading done, the Octopus chair (top right) has you covered. Literally. Made from recycled jeans and polystyrene balls, the many legs of the Octopus chair will keep you cozy and protected as you catch up on the latest thriller novel.

Have your friends stopped answering your calls because they can’t stand to help you move all of your furniture into a new apartment yet again? Solve part of the problem with the inflatable massage chair (bottom right). It only weighs 18 pounds and can go from rolled up to fully inflated and ready to use in two minutes. Plus, what’s classier than an inflatable chair in your living room?

This sheep chair (bottom left) might take the trophy for classy living room furniture. With its three heads, soulful eyes and massive amounts of wool, this chair is part hellhound, part lambskin rug, and part really creepy throne.

If you’re like us, you’ve probably said to yourself many times, “Hm, I could really do with an open flame in my living room.” Now, just for you, there’s a coffee table (top) that lets you not only keep an open flame near your flowing curtains, but grow grass at the same time. The Fire and Ice coffee table features a fire pit on one side and a cavity on the other side for storage or growing grass. A sliding metal platform only allows you to display one side at a time.

The Cityscape (Dublin) table (top right) brings the Dublin skyline to mind while providing the perfect place to store your books and other oblong objects.

If you know someone who loves pinball, you can score major points in their book by making them this excellent pinball coffee table (bottom right). The idea of having an arcade machine that’s also everyday furniture is enough to thrill any geek.

Convertible furniture is a great way to maximize the space in your living area. Most of us are used to seeing pull-out sofas for this purpose, but a pull-out coffee table (bottom)? That’s exactly what Julia West Home has done here. The result is a simple pull-out bed that you’d never know was there by looking at the closed-up coffee table.

If it’s convertible furniture you’re interested in, take a good look at Fix it on the Wall Furniture (middle left) from designer John Nouanesing. When the furniture is not in use, each piece has its own place in the wall holder. When you need the tiny table and four cushions, simply pull them down, assemble, and enjoy your impromptu tea party.

These coffee tables are for the true nerds among us. The top, a working Nintendo controller protected by a layer of glass, was truly a labor of love for its proud owner. The table on the bottom sports a feature that most of us instantly recognize: the periodic table of elements. Each element is represented by a small sample of it safely embedded in acrylic so that even the dangerous elements can’t hurt you.

The design for these shelves is simply amazing. PLoP! shelves are made of corrugated cardboard to make them easy to carry around and set up in a new place. The shelves are collapsible, so whenever you need to hit the road quickly you can just remove your things from the shelves and fold it up. The units are also connectable, so you can have a long system of book shelves.

Finally, the “Eternaltainment Center.” This company provides double-duty furniture that today can be used for any number of applications, but when the owner kicks the bucket the main part of the furniture becomes a casket. They sell everything, from sofas to display cases to pool tables, all made from your future coffin. Is it just us, or is that concept just a little weird?

OFFICE and FURNITURE

Typical office furniture is gray, drab, and uncomfortable. Seeing row after row of cubicles, all paired with the same black office chair and occupied by the same bored looking colleague, day after day, can really get to you. These unusually creative office furnitures could help you perk up your office - or at least give you something interesting to look at while you’re pretending that you’re not reading WebUrbanist at work.

At first glance, the Trey Chair seems to be an ordinary office chair. But when you look closer, you notice that it’s two distinct pieces that can come apart and be used separately. The seat becomes a low rocker, perfect for playing video games or doing homework, while the wheeled base becomes a tiny table or comfy ottoman. This has to be one of the best multi-functional chairs we’ve seen. You can go from working at a desk to working low to the ground with a laptop table in no time flat.

How many times have you needed to read up on a subject for work or school, but just couldn’t find a quiet place to do it? The Bookinist, from German designer Nils Holger Moormann, solves that problem in a very neat way. The Bookinist is basically a portable chair that just happens to have a ton of book storage space built in. It can hold about 80 paperback books, plus it has a hidden compartment for storing reading essentials - which, according to the picture, apparently include a magnifying glass and some paint stirring sticks. The attached reading lamp makes it easy to goof off and read comics study even in low light. This awesomely unique chair would be at home in nearly any room.

Although the Flagship Vision One chair could conceivably be used for work, it is obviously meant to be the greatest gaming chair ever. Made with a genuine Porsche seat and featuring ample surfaces for all of your gear, the V1 is the ultimate in working/gaming comfort. And if your job just happens to be playing video games, even better.

Dr. James Levine of the Mayo Clinic has done extensive research on the effects of low-speed walking while working. In his estimation, workers can lose 57 pounds in a year if they do nothing else but walk at 1-2 miles per hour while working on their computer. While it would obviously take a little time to get used to walking and typing, this seems like a sensible and simple way to keep in shape. The treadmill workstation from Steelcase comes in a stationary design or an adjustable one that lets you go from walking to sitting with just a few adjustments. Or, if you’re adventurous and handy with a saw, try making your own.

If you’ve ever worked in an office, you know how it can grind down your soul. The constant noise, the lack of personal space, and the frequent interruptions found in most offices are enough to make some of us hide in a bathroom stall just to get a little time away. If you can convince your boss to let you get this excellent piece of furniture, your privacy (and perhaps your dignity) will be restored. The House on the Table, from design studio Design Mong, is quite literally a house on a table. It’s like a cave that fits on top of your desk and gives you your own little fort inside your office. Imagine how fun it would be to hold a meeting in this tiny playhouse office.

If you happen to have large piles of cash just waiting to be spent, the DC6 Cowling Desk from MotoArt would be an outstanding addition to your office. In its former life it housed an aircraft engine. Now it can look fashionable and shiny, holding your computer as you toil away all day.

It looks sort of like a weird steampunk dentist chair, but the Nethrone is in fact an adjustable work station that allows users to adjust the tilt of the chair and monitor. The end result is sort of like a customizable cradle that provides a relaxing work environment…if you can keep yourself from falling asleep in it, that is.

While it most likely won’t fit into your office, the Conference Bike is a fun way to take the office outside. Pile your Party-Planning Committee members on and take a ride around the park while the debate over the color of the napkins rages on. The Conference Bike is a trike on which seven people sit and pedal while one steers. We can imagine that in some offices, choosing one person to steer would require a whole new committee.

Finally, another impressive offering from the mind of Nils Holger Moormann: the Lese + Lebe (or Read + Live). There are almost too many cool things about this piece of furniture to list them all. The back is a bookcase, while the front features a couch, fold-down tables, pull-out footrests, storage drawers, and even some cute lamps. The tables look to be just about the right size for perching your laptop on. The whole thing is on wheels, making it a breeze to move from one room to another when your family or coworkers in one room get to be a bit too much.

DININGROOM

The idea of a dedicated dining room is still relatively new; they’ve only been a common floor plan feature since the mid-19th century. Since then, dining rooms have largely been ignored by designers who would rather focus their attention on the rooms where we spend more of our time. Even so, there are still some truly excellent furnitures to be found for this under-appreciated room.

unusual dining room furniture cube 6

The Cube 6, from Japanese designer Naho Matsuno, lets you seat a ton of people without taking up your entire dining room. The sides of the cube all pull out to become six individual stools. When assembled, the cube is only a shade under 14 square inches on each side. It’s a simple design that works way better than having six folding chairs stashed in your closet.

unusual dining room furniture disappearing table

If you’ve ever lived in a tiny apartment, you know that “dining room” really means “itty-bitty corner of the living room where you can’t fit a table and chairs.” For small rooms, a space-economizing dining set like this disappearing round dining table from NYIT student designers is a must. The tabletop itself stays stationary while the chairs and eating spaces are pulled out from the column.

unusual dining room furniture stepladder chair

WebUrbanist loves transforming furniture, and this transforming chair (which may or may not have been invented by Ben Franklin) is a fine example. You can go from a dining chair to a step-stool in one simple movement, giving you an extended reach and eliminating the need to risk your neck by standing on your tiptoes on a dining chair.

unusual dining room furniture musical table

Designer Fumiaki Goto is on a mission to make meal times more musical. This marimba-like table allows you to gorge on beautiful sounds while enjoying a meal. Each time an object touches a bar on the top of the table, a sound resonates in the pipes below.

unusual dining room furniture xpand table

When you need a lot of seating area but don’t want the table to dominate the dining room, finding just the right dining table is not easy. You could get a table with a removable center leaf, but you’ve still got to figure out what to do with the leaf when it’s not being used and deal with assembling and disassembling it every time you use it. This ingenious table solves that problem by using some very clever accordion-style pieces in the middle of the table. While the expanding middle of the table allows it to become larger according to need, it also serves as an attractive and interesting feature.

unusual dining room furniture composting digestive table

Some ideas are so simple and common-sense that you wonder why no one has done them before…and then you realize that it’s because the idea is sort of gross. The Digestive Table from Amy Youngs is just such an idea. It incorporates eating with composting, something that makes a lot of sense. When you’re done with dinner, you throw the scraps into the built-in compost heap inside the table. Then sowbugs, bacteria and worms help the material decompose and turn it into luscious natural fertilizer that feeds the plants kept at the bottom of the table. If you want to lose your appetite (and so have more food to feed the table), watch the attached LED monitor to see live decomposition action from inside the table. The Digestive Table isn’t commercially available, but the website does include a construction diagram so you can build one yourself.

unusual dining room furniture cube table

Another space-saving dining room design, Cube Style features a tiny square table with two booths. All three pieces fit together to form a box when not in use. The table top remains available for holding decorative items or acting as a desk even when the benches are in place. This dining set may save you from eating dinner with the plate balanced on your knees.

unusual dining room furniture led lighted table

If you enjoy soft lighting with your meal, this LED-lighted table is perfect. It interacts with your movement above it, creating unique light shows every time you use it. The best part of all is that Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories are giving away for free the plans to build this awesome table.

KITCHEN FURNITURE'S DESIGN

unusual kitchen furniture design concepts

When you think of interesting design in the home, the kitchen typically isn’t the first room that springs to mind. It may be the heart of the home, but it’s also one of the most utilitarian places in most houses when it comes to selecting furnitures to fit into it. After all, what new can be done with counter tops, shelves, and those huge appliances?

For the right designer, the kitchen is an ideal place to play around with old ideas and create new ones. These kitchen design concepts break the rules and come off looking super cool.

unusual kitchen furniture aion

This unique kitchen concept by Antoine Lebrun is much more than meets the eye. When closed, it looks like a kitchen planter with lots of nice greenery growing on top. But when it’s open, it reveals a workspace, cooking surface, and sink. This kitchen comes with the coolest secret ever: those plants on top provide natural soap to clean the workspace, sink, and dishes whenever the top is closed. Don’t plan on owning it anytime soon, though; Lebrun designed the kitchen for Fagor Brandt as an idea of what will be possible for kitchens in ten years.

unusual kitchen furniture alight kitchen

The ALight Kitchen was designed with the intention of making the kitchen a more sustainable place. The unit houses a smart oven which reads the barcodes from pre-packaged foods (packed only in sheet metal, of course) to cook the food efficiently. The integrated dining table features hollow reversible plates and a flatware holder. And best of all, the built-in dishwasher recycles wash water to cut down on water consumption.

unusual kitchen furniture fevzi karaman modular kitchen

When you’ve got a tiny kitchen, having a work center that does double duty can make the space seem larger while keeping all of the functionality of a full-size kitchen. The modular kitchen by Fevzi Karaman is a clever design that houses everything you need in a compact space. A sink, recycling bin, cooking surface, stove, storage and more all fit under the moving tabletop. When closed, you have a nice breakfast bar island. When open, you’ve got a cozy table for two.

unusual kitchen furniture michael schmidt cooklounge

If you’ve ever lived in a little efficiency apartment, you know how hard it can be to have people over. When you do, the tiny room seems too cramped to do much of anything. Designer Michael Schmidt’s Cooklounge tries to make apartment living a little more convenient with a unique set of furniture that can be arranged as a lounge or a kitchen. The attractive sideboard opens up to reveal a kitchen that’s better equipped than most standard kitchens. An oven, stove, barbecue, dishwasher, warming plate, sink, and other fun extras are included. The adjustable-height table lets you lounge on the floor or on one of the dining/living chairs.

unusual kitchen furniture hidden kitchen june he

The Hidden Kitchen from June He is a great example of what one can do with a tiny kitchen space. This wall of tiles houses furniture and storage areas that appear seemingly out of nowhere. A workspace pulls out, doors open up, and drawers slide out of their hiding spaces to create a kitchen that, while it’s not quite full-sized, allows more flexibility than almost any other design.

KIDS FURNITURE DESIGN

unusually cool kids funiture

When you have crazy adventurous kids, you have to be prepared for the veritable avalanche of strange, colorful things that will invade your home. Fluffy toys, loud things that spontaneously make noise in the middle of the night, and all kinds of little furniture in garishly bright primary colors. The situation isn’t entirely hopeless, though: some designers are putting the fun back into kids’ furnitures. These pieces are a delight not only for kids, but for their hip parents, too.

unusually cool kids furniture space shuttle bed

It would be really difficult to think of any cooler way to sleep than in this awesome space shuttle bunk bed. It’s the perfect way to make up for forgetting to pick up your kids at soccer practice or “accidentally” blabbing to their friends about that thumb-sucking thing.

unusually cool kids furniture mushroom tables

These adorable mushroom tables were intended to go in the living room, but we can see them in a kid’s room holding many treasures. A collection of stuffed animals would be right at home on top of these toadstools.

unusually cool kids furniture dressers

Every kid needs somewhere to stash their collection of overpriced logo shirts that their school pressured you into buying. The accordion dresser, on the left, brings a little bit of whimsy and fun to the dreary task of putting laundry away. The Emily dresser, on the right, looks kind of like a playhouse but is actually for storing clothes. It’s very feminine and flowery for little princesses.

cool kids furniture cinderella pumpkin coach bed

Speaking of little princesses, this ridiculously cool Cinderella pumpkin coach bed would be the perfect way to send your little one off to sleep. Hopefully then she’ll wake up and spin some straw into gold for you, because this bed will run you $47,000.

unusually cool kids furniture skyscraper dressers

If you’re not ready to splash out that kind of cash, you can still put a little fairy tale into your kids’ rooms. These skyscraper dressers make your little one feel like a giant while keeping their colossal clothing neat and tidy.

unusually cool kids furniture stuffed animal chairs

Remember piling up a bunch of stuffed animals when you were a kid, then curling up on top of them? Designers Fernando and Humberto Campana took the idea one step further and made these chairs, which are essentially a bunch of stuffed animals all piled up and waiting for you to curl up on them.

cool kids furniture pkolino play table

The designers at P’kolino don’t think that kids’ play should be limited just to toys. Their P’kolino play table lets kids reconfigure it into lots of different positions for hours of exploratory playtime.

unusually cool kids furniture storage chairs

These chairs with storage under the seats may not be the most innovative or unusual design ever. But anyone who has kids knows that you need all the storage space you can get. If you can double up on seating and storage, all the better. Kids can keep art supplies, books, toys, and all kinds of treasures in under the wooden lids.

unusually cool kids furniture cardboard furniture

If you’ve ever bought your kid a big, expensive toy only to watch him ignore the toy and climb into the box and have hours of fun, these cardboard play sets are for you. They’re made from recycled cardboard and they’re recyclable when you’re done with them. They’re pretty cheap, too, so you can let Junior go wild with the markers and tempera paints to design his own magical play area.

GARDEN FURNITURE DESIGN

unusually magical garden furniture

The garden, for many of us, is an extension of the home. It’s where we can get back to nature, dig our hands in, and contribute to the growth of an abundant crop. Even urban gardeners who don’t have much space can appreciate the big impact that these (mostly) small pieces of of unusual furnitures can make.

whimsical garden swings

These swings from Fletcher and Myburgh Designs look like something out of a fairy tale. They are as much works of art as they are places to sit down and take a break from a hard day of gardening. The soft lines and rounded shapes make each swing seem like a cocoon of peace removed from the outside world.

unusual garden furniture butterfly benches peacock bench leaf chair

A relaxing bench is the first piece of furniture most gardeners buy for their little plot of land. These lovely steel butterfly and peacock benches and leaf-shaped chairs carry on the nature theme of the garden while giving visitors a place to pause and take in the sights.

Unusually nifty garden furniture planter furniture

These creative designs show what happens when you don’t just make furniture to go in the garden - you make it part of the garden. The benches, tables, and chairs from Cinq Cinq Designers feature built-in planters to let you keep green things near you always.

unusual garden furniture growing pooktre furniture

Some garden furniture is closer to its, ahem, roots than most. The practice of arborsculpture - coaxing trees to grow in specific shapes or patterns - has been around for centuries, but it has enjoyed a resurgence in the new millenium. Many people think that this is the future of furniture making: designing and growing your own furniture. The above designs include a coffee table (in its growing form at top left and finished form at top right), a still-growing chair, and a living table.

UPDATE: Becky from Pooktre, makers of the beautiful growing furniture above, has kindly corrected me about their method. It is not arborsculpture, but a gentler way of guiding growing trees into the desired shape. Learn more about their process at their site and in the comments section of this post. Thanks, Becky!

cool garden furniture toadstool furniture

They may not be live, growing furniture, but they almost look like it. These adorable carved wooden pieces are actually children’s chairs to put in the garden. The low toadstools would be perfectly at home among tall ornamental grasses or wildflowers, or even beside a garden path.

unusual garden furniture planters birdbaths outdoor speakers

Garden furniture that does double duty is bound to catch the fancy of any space-conscious gardener. These are great examples of how garden furniture can be ornamental and functional at the same time. The birdbath plant stand is made to hold up to twelve hanging baskets, bird feeders, or a combination of the two. In the center sits a birdbath for your feathered visitors to wash up in after a nice meal. The Little Garden table is available in two heights and lets you keep a bit of the garden with you during outdoor summer meals. Plant some herbs in it and you’ve got instant seasoning for your meals.

Listening to music while you weed the flowerbeds doesn’t have to mean wearing uncomfortable earbuds. The StereoStone Fountain Speaker lets you pipe your favorite tunes outdoors while the running water up top creates soothing background noise. And if your garden space is severely limited, you can make some furniture do double (or triple) duty. The Griffin planter/chair/table transforms to be what you need when you need it.

unusual garden furniture pet houses

Why leave your pets out? They love a good garden almost as much as you do. These innovative pet houses use the otherwise wasted space on the roof to create intriguing little gardens filled with plants native to your specific area.

Great garden furniture may not make your flowers bloom, but it can certainly make the area feel more relaxing and inviting for everyone who enters.

OUTDOOR FURNITURE DESIGNS

In general, you’ll find two types of outdoor spaces attached to urban homes: the tiny space that’s so cramped it’s nearly unusable, and the surprisingly large space that just begs for unique furniture. Both present unique design challenges that can be solved with the clever application of some unique outdoor furnitures.

fold out vertical patio outdoor furniture

When you have a cramped urban backyard, every square foot of space counts. Architectural firm Pique was given the challenge of creating a patio setup that took up as little space as possible but still allowed for plenty of use. They came up with this innovative design that’s a little like a real-world pop-up book. An entire patio’s worth of furniture and living spaces is cleverly concealed in the vertical face, while the top acts as a terrace.

outdoor bed outside furniture

Love sleeping under the stars but aren’t too keen on the idea of a tent? Spending the night in an outdoor bed gives you the best of the indoors and the outdoors with a comfy sleeping place that just happens to be poolside. As an added bonus, sleeping outdoors on a breezy summer night rather than cranking up your air conditioner can save a bundle on utility bills.

stackable golf outdoor furniture

You can’t go wrong with space-saving furniture, and that furniture scores bonus points when it doubles as something else. In this case, these four outdoor chairs and coffee table stack up to look like a golf ball sculpture when not in use.

outdoor chairs weatherproof outside furniture

One of the most annoying things about outdoor furniture is its tendency to break down or become unusable if you leave it uncovered outside during inclement weather. These Marlin chairs are designed to withstand being left outdoors, and they’ll look like giant pieces of candy on your patio.

spaghetti bench outdoor art furniture

You wouldn’t want to leave it out to the mercy of the elements, but Pablo Reinoso’s Spaghetti Wall bench looks like a modern update to the bland wooden bench we’re so used to seeing in outdoor spaces. You can be pretty sure that you’ll have the coolest patio in the neighborhood with a bench that looks like it’s trying to crawl away.

outdoor fort outside furniture

If you had a tree house when you were a kid, you know how great it was to have your own place to get away and be isolated for a while with just your imagination to keep you occupied. Not many urban homes have room for a tree house, but you can recapture that comfortable feeling of isolation with an outdoor fort. It’s more like a chair with a high back, but throw a blanket over the top and you’ll have the perfect hiding spot right in your back yard.

plastic fantastic outdoor sofa chairs

These sophisticated-looking pieces don’t look like outdoor furniture, but in fact they’ve been coated with a special type of rubber that allows them to be used outdoors as well as in. You can create a soft and cushy outdoor living room with these, complete with shiny gold couch.

hide away outdoor furniture

If you truly have no space on your deck or patio, having a place to sit down and relax can present a challenge. Designer Sandy Lam came up with a way to get around that problem: stowaway furniture that pulls right out of the deck itself. When not in use, it folds up to be totally hidden from view.

Outdoor furniture doesn’t have to be flimsy plastic lawn chairs, as these designs prove. No matter how much (or how little) outdoor space your home has, you can vastly improve the look and feel of the space with furniture that makes the most of the area it’s in.

source: http://weburbanist.com/2008/09/14/90-unusually-awesome-urban-furniture-designs/